We finished phase one of our project, so we sat back and thought … “hmm. What should we do with ebooksforlibraries next?”

Watch the video in this post to find out the answer to that! And then go visit our first post on the relaunched ebooksforlibraries website (and make sure to subscribe, too).

Our goal is pretty simple. There are a lot of really great blogs and news sites devoted to ebooks and the publishing industry, and we don’t want to try to mimic those. But as we’ve been following those sites, and all the many stories surrounding ebooks and libraries, we realized something: no one’s telling libraries what any of these changes actually MEAN for libraries. No one’s saying “great – big-name publisher #1 says you own your ebook files. What changes tomorrow for our public libraryÂ becauseÂ of that announcement? What’s that mean next week, or even next year”

So our goal is to try and answer those practical questions surrounding ebooks for libraries.

Our Ebooksforlibraries campaign did it. We reached our goal of 10,000 signatures (it’s actually at 10,644 right now)! Watch the video to find out what’s next.

Want more info about our Ebooks for Libraries project? There’s a great write-up about iton my library’s website. I love how the article starts out: “If your business received 10,000 requests for a product you had in stock, would you sell it to them? In just seven weeks, the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, through ebooksforlibraries.com, has collected 10,000 signatures requesting publishers provide ebooks to libraries by developing a business model that allows publishers and authors to thrive. The goal of 10,000 signatures was reached today at 9:05 am CDT.

While sales of ereaders and tablets skyrocket, libraries are having trouble getting ebooks to fill up these popular devices. Some of the largest publishing companies are creating barriers to delivering library customers the books they want in the format they want them.

The library encouraged readers to send a message to publishers about the limits they are imposing on supplying ebooks to libraries. A petition was set up on www.ebooksforlibraries.com. Readers â€“ from as far away as Australia and Spain â€“ responded to help surpass the goal.” (read the rest here).

Libraries are having trouble getting ebooks from the largest publishing companies. These publishers are adding restrictions and price increases, or simply not selling ebooks to libraries at all.

This means that library customers can get a print copy of a book from a library, but canâ€™t get that same book in an ebook format. And that’s just weird.

Goal – we need 10,000 e-signatures from readers.

Once we hit that magic number, we plan to mail the completed petitions to each of the big six publishers.Â Why? We want to communicate directly with publishers through this petition process, with the intent of establishing formal and consistent communication between publishers and readers.

One other thing – you can help!

Fill out the petition!

Share the petition – on your website, in Facebook, in Twitter, etc.

Point to the petition in your buildings – put up signs, mention it in your library’s newsletter, etc.

Why do this? Our ultimate goal is to get books, in all formats, to our readers. This helps authors, publishers, libraries â€¦ and most importantly, our readers.